Santa Time...

We took our annual trip to the mall to sit on Santa's lap. I love this, because I never know what is going to happen. This year all three boys were fine. Logan was not scared at all. He did escape Tyler at one point and ended up running all the way into JC Penny. Then Sam followed and we had two kids running through the mall. Yes - we are those parents. Jack was very serious, I started giving him tips and he said, "I know mom, talk loud, look him in the eye, and tell him what I want." His list was a bit long and very expensive. Sam was really quiet but cute. Logan sat on his lap when it was time for pics. Next we need to work on getting them all to look at the camera at the same time. But as far as Santa pics go, this one turned out pretty cute.

Pie Night!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at our home. Our friends the Horner's came over, and everything was YUMMY. Jack made darling name cards for each guest. I was so busy with the food that I forgot to take pictures of the spread this year. Trust me, it was great.

Later that night we invited several families over for pie night. We started this tradition while Tyler was in law school in Nebraska. It is a fun way for everyone to enjoy their family dinner, but still get together. It also allows us to try little slices of a whole bunch of different pies and desserts. This is Tyler's favorite holiday of the whole year! Here are some pics from our evening.

Jack was upset that I would not let him wear this for Thanksgiving dinner. He felt like this homemade Squanto costume was totally appropriate. I am so mean!

Charlie was also horrified that I made him dress up in a silly sweater. See him cringe and put his tail between his legs.

Logan loves Charlie! He is reading him stories and giving him loves. We also noticed that the dog is getting very fat because Logan is constantly feeding him.

During the prep, Logan discovered the candy dishes that I was getting ready to put out for the guests. He has no problems getting himself up on the counter and quickly helped himself to the chocolate. He screamed and screamed when we took him off and moved the candy where he could not reach it. Once the party started, he spent most of the time finding the various candy dishes and either helping himself or making friends with the closest available push over. Sam was a bit sneakier, but he snagged several handfuls too.

Here are all of the yummy pies and desserts! The unofficial theme of the night is "more pie than any human should possibly eat", or "eat till you puke".

Round One for Jack!

Soooooo Coooooold!

When every other word out of the weatherman's mouth is Arctic, you know you are in for it. We are expecting/experiencing record low temperatures this week. There are a couple feet of snow on the ground, school was cancelled because of the high winds, and Jack is in heaven. The kid stays outside in the snow for hours at a time. Sam has been a trooper and can stay out for almost an hour at a time. Jack was thrilled with his really cool invention today. He took a round sled and used it to slide down the slide on our swing set. I think it is a good thing I have insurance!
But this is the real reason I am blogging tonight! Jack came in from retrieving said sled with a bleeding tongue and lots of tears. He quickly explained that he put his tongue on something metal and it stuck and he had to pull it off and now he is bleeding. I am sorry, I am a horrible mom, but I laughed my head off - almost peed my pants. He was not impressed with my lack of sympathy. He also would have loved it if I wrapped his tongue in a gauze bandage just like they did on The Christmas Story movie, but I made him take a few sips of water and that was it. I asked him if he knew it would stick, and he said he didn't. He later confessed to Tyler that he knew it would stick, but not that bad. He also was unable to eat any salad with dinner because the ranch dressing hurt his tongue. I let him get away with that, because I was still laughing every time I looked at him. I should get credit for only asking him once if someone double dog dared him to do it.

Coming to you from Dayton Ohio

Another business trip, another hotel room...It seems that is the only time I have lately to blog. I have very cute pictures of the boys in their Halloween costumes on my computer at home. Never got a chance to blog them. Sorry, just imagine a cute Jack the Army boy (face paint of course), Sam the Superman (sprayed black hair with a little curl in front), and Logan the darling dancing elephant. Something about the costume made him dance. Doesn't that sound cute? I also have pictures of the pumpkin patch, petting zoo, and carving pumpkins.

Oh, by the way it was Tyler's birthday on the 7th too and I made him another delicious apple pie. Happy Birthday Tyler, maybe I will get you a present by Christmas :) I would list 38 reasons why I love you, but I really don't have time for that either. I could totally do it though. I have known you now for 23 years - can you believe it?!?

I am really looking forward to a week off for Thanksgiving!

Germany!

It is my last day in Germany; I decided to blog before I get home and forget all that I have done. This is my trip report.

The purpose of my trip is to provide training to our US Army customers working in the Army bases here in Europe. We had about 40 customers from about 18 different facilities in Germany, Belgium, France, Italy... Typically our customers travel to out annual users conferences for this training, but it is not cost effective to send so many users from over sees to the US, so they planned this conference to allow those customers to get some the training they missed. For a regular conference, we send 20 or so people from our company to put it on. For this training conference, I travelled with one other colleague named Paul. Paul and I have known each other since 2000. He was one of my star students, so I hired him as a trainer and I used to be his boss. When I left the training position, he took my position. We have been friends all along. He and his family live in Warner Robins Georgia. Paul has been to Germany several times, so I was very glad he was coming with me; it was like having a free driver and tour guide.
I arrived in Heidelberg Germany on Monday morning after a full day of exhausting travel. My hotel was in the countryside right outside of Heidelberg. All of the leaves are in full color change, and the hillsides were gorgeous with changing leaves, old farm houses, and castles. The weather was perfect. It was comfortable outside in a sweater. It is very strange to be in Germany. It is not something I had ever considered before. I cant stop looking out of my window.

Tuesday morning - Ate a lot of free breakfast consisting of fresh breads, cheeses, yogurt, fruit, and juice. (I will miss this bread). We went to the room where the conference would take place. We tested our Internet connections, and made sure all of the final touches on our presentations were ready. Then we went to Heidelberg to see the sites. We went to the castle and crossed the bridge over the Neckar river. I took about 150 pictures of all the cool architecture. I think I might have enough to make a book of pictures of the doors and windows of Heidelberg. We ate at a great little German restaurant. I ordered a dish that was translated into English as: spicy vegetarian flat bread served with goat cheese and Mediterranean vegetables. When it came out, I couldn't stop laughing. I had managed to order pizza off of a German menu.

I also had fun in the Christmas store and bought a few souvenirs. We met Juliet, our point of contact in Europe, for dinner. She lives in Mannheim, and took us to her city. She took us to a Turkish restaurant in the "Turk Town" area of the city. The menu was in German with no translation. Juliet tried to translate, but was having a hard time explaining, so she had us look at the pictures inside the restaurant. I learned a very important German word that night, chicken. It helped me on several later menus when I could not figure out what to order.

Wednesday - Our training conference started. I had 3 50-minute presentations. Paul taught a 3 hour class on report writing. For dinner, we went with the Army Headquarters contact, Pete, to a Greek restaurant. It was the funniest restaurant of the trip. Each booth had sheep skins stapled to the wood. There was one old Greek man running the whole show. He had one cook. It was packed. He basically yelled at us in German to order. Luckily, Pete speaks Greek, none of us speak German. Pete was able to order us chicken :) in Greek and that is all we knew. He tried to order himself a Greek item and ended up with a German lasagna with gravy. Our chicken was excellent - grilled with yummy Greek spices and served with french fries and a really yucky German salad. At the end to make up for the horrible treatment he gave us all a free shot of Oso. Neither Paul nor I drink, so sadly it went to waste. Pete did take a nip of his before leaving. We took his word that it was very good. He wouldn't take my credit card and yelled at me to pay with Euros. I don't know how I am going to sort out my expense report.

Thursday - 2nd day of training conference. I had 5 50-minute presentations. Paul had 2 50-minute presentations. Juliet arranged for all that wanted to participate to go to a Spanish restaurant in Mannheim. This restaurant has flamenco dancers who perform on a small stage. About 2o of us participated. The menu was in Spanish with German subtitles. I could figure out the foods in Spanish. I ordered an amazing grilled salmon dish. The Europeans are so laid back. We were at the restaurant for 4 hours. They just drank a little, ate a little, and talked and laughed and enjoyed the dancing. I was dying! I had to pack, and work, and talk to my family. I thought about how little time we spend eating our dinner. I decided that I am in too much of a hurry and it would be good if I slowed down every once in a while. I really enjoyed visiting with our foreign customers. They asked us a lot of interesting questions about the US government, geography, schools, etc. You could tell they were trying to make sense of things they had read or heard about the US. They are such generous, laid back, and kind people. I loved learning a bit about them. They did not share much though, because they kept asking us question. The funniest was asking us to explain different US phrases like "pulling your leg" and "your name is mud".

Friday - last day of conference. We had a wrap up, but ended early. Our customers presented with the most beautiful handmade rose leis. Paul and I drove to Frankfurt. That is where I am right now. We are staying in a high rise hotel right in down town. This is an amazing city. Very big, and modern. After we checked in, we walked to the down town shopping area. We found a urban fusion restaurant. We have a policy about only eating at a restaurant where the menu has English subtitles if there is no one with us to translate, but we were hungry and this place looked good. There were enough words that we could pick out by now like pizza, pita, chicken!, curry, etc. I ordered a chicken curry dish and it was amazing. I did accidentally eat a mushroom instead of a piece of chicken, but I didn't die. :) We are taking it easy tonight and eating at the hotel. My flight leaves in the morning. I am ready to get home to my kids. My in laws were nice enough to stay with them, so Tyler could work. I got to talk to them on the phone today and they seem to be in good spirits.

***I arrived home safely on Saturday afternoon. I am finally feeling back to normal. I had to wait and post this in the US, because my spell check was in German and I was too embarrassed to post without it. After running it this morning, I am glad that I didn't post!

Conclusion:

• I actually like Germany. I am pleasantly surprised by this, and it makes me want to see more of Europe. My instincts are much better than when I travelled overseas back in 2000. I guess I grew up a bit in the last 10 years.

• I cannot read, understand, or speak German. I should not even try to say the words I see written on signs. It feels like my brain can pronounce them, but when I speak them it sounds ridiculous.


• I am an American! I enjoy quick and convenient things. I like alarm clocks in my hotel rooms, and TV that I can understand. I will try to slow down when I eat, but 4 hours is way too long for a dinner out!

Cross Country

I love Jack's elementary school. They have such fun programs. During the fall, the kids can participate in cross country. They practice on Tuesday and Thursday after school. At the end of the season, they have a track meet against another elementary school (each grade races separately). They have one more huge track meet at the high school against all of the schools in the district. I only had my camera at the first meet. Here is a play by play.

The starting line up

half way around the course

Sprinting towards the finish line (love the grasping of heart)

A happy finisher! (They get cookies)

In reality, Jack finishes right in the middle of the group. In Jack's estimation, he is pretty close to winning. "Probably 4th or 6th". I love Jack - he is such a positive kid, and he gives everything he has to everything he does.

Jack is also taking piano lessons right now, and is pretty good. He loves it, so that helps a lot. We have a great teacher that comes to our house which helps me out a lot. He is also loving scouts and is busy every night with homework. He is always interested in adding activities, but I am hesitant to overload him. Right now he wants to take a martial arts class. We'll see what is next for Jack!

Sam's Surgery

After Sam's scary penicillin allergy our doc sent us to see an Ear Nose Throat doctor. He checked out both Jack and Sam. While Jack's tonsils were on the larger size, Sam's were gigantic and causing him to mouth breath, so we scheduled him for a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy on Oct 14th.

The kids had the funniest reactions. Jack was very jealous that Sam got to have surgery and he didn't, and Sam was excited to go to the "blue hospital" where he was "borned". When we got to the hospital, Sam was darling. He was all grins and enjoyed having mom all to himself. He was polite and quiet and practiced using the mask on himself and his dragon named "drag-o". All the nurses gathered for his enactment of how he would fall asleep after he got the gas. When they gave him the meds to relax him, he was absolutely hysterical. He got all glazed and was amazed by my hair. He decided that his surgery doll was a Super Dentist that was saving the world. More nurses gathered to enjoy the fun. He went right back and had no problems breathing in the mask. He really wanted to blow up the purple balloon for the doc.

Surgery went great, and he was very calm in recovery. He ate his applesauce, and drank some juice and they sent us home with the normal warnings.
And then the fun begins... Carrying him into the house from the car, he tells me that he feels like he is going to throw up. I put him on the counter in the bathroom and run to get a bowl. I come back and he is a black puddle of blood. Scary. I lay him down, and give him his meds. He throws up another bowl full of red blood. After several repeats, I call the doctor. I try to explain the amount of blood, and that his nose is bleeding and wont stop. We try everything he says and it continues, so he tells us to go to the ER. Luckily I handed Sam a barf bag, because he threw up two more times on the way and in the lobby. He was pale, and tired, and miserable. They gave him some anti-nausea meds and and IV full of fluids. He stopped throwing up, and the clots were able to form on his adenoids. If he would have bled one more time, he would have had to go back to surgery for more cauterization. They moved us to peds and we got to sleep overnight. Sam was very very mad about that. I had told him he didn't have to sleep overnight at the hospital. I lied, and I learned a lesson about not promising things that I cannot control. He is doing fine now. Still pretty drained and whiny! They said his voice would change, but now he sounds like Mickey Mouse. I wonder if it will change back.

I handled this all surprisingly well, because this is just the way things have been going for me lately. If you are close to me and start to have bad luck, sorry it is probably just me.